


The Calamity Named Insomnia

by GalaxyKoi



Series: Iotath's Unrest [Non-Canon] Side Stories [3]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Iotath's Unrest
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Read notes please because I give y'all my warnings there, Self-Harm, but it was worth it, god this hurt me to write, this fic was called Game of Life until about a day ago so that's this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:21:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21639493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyKoi/pseuds/GalaxyKoi
Summary: The crew continues on with their journey towards the mountains, but the relations after the events of "Secrets, Revealed." have been a bit rough. However, Cynthia believes that everyone still deserves a break from the hell they've seen the past month. Poth and Paddy hunt down impressive things. Roth gets redemption. Wall keeps tabs on the captain and questions her ability to be captain.  Everyone experiences Boy Lake: Iotath's Unrest Edition.
Relationships: Pathia (Cynthia Featherstone/Paddy McLoughlin)
Series: Iotath's Unrest [Non-Canon] Side Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1457131
Kudos: 1





	1. Plans.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, you get the gist at this point. I ramble on about how I’m glad to be in this campaign and such, glad to have Cynthia to stab, and so on. I thank northern--song for beta-reading this fanfiction, and then mention the Avrae bot briefly for help making combat simulations so much easier on me. 
> 
> However, I do have to give a brief but important set of disclaimers with this fanfiction. This fanfiction is non-canon unless stated by Zyarch otherwise. Second, this fanfiction has nothing to do with An Angel’s Fall AU, but follows the events of “Secrets, Revealed”, so reading that one is highly recommended to understand the present dynamics within the party. 
> 
> Finally, this fanfiction gets dark. I do my best to state warnings in the tags, but just in case you didn’t read those, this fanfiction gets dark very suddenly. Sure, we have the normal conflicts for the first three parts of this fanfiction, but for “Chapter Four: Aftermath” and “Chapter Five: Trial”, it does lean closer to self-destructive habits and lots of heavy emotional content. 
> 
> Read the end at your own risk. 
> 
> With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the read.

“Good morning, darlings. It’s time for the morning debrief. We will be holding it on the deck of the ship in ten minutes. Failure to arrive by that time will result in being flipped out of your hammock.” 

Cynthia had a grin on her face as she lifted her finger off of a grey button on her desk. On the desk was also a map that had become curled on its edges, her diary, and a few crumbled pieces of parchment. She could hear the whirring of the ship’s engine on the opposite side of the ship, and as she walked towards the deck, her steps caused the floor beneath her to creak. She was hiding her excitement and keeping her composure by slowing her gait to a graceful stroll up to the deck. 

Patiently, the captain waited for Paddy, Roth, and Roth to the deck. Wall, being the obedient warforged he was, was already on the deck. It was also worth noting that it was because he was stationed on the deck during the night and morning. Still, Cynthia appreciated it. After a bit, she decided to strike a conversation with Wall.

“Good morning, Wall. Has everything been well?” She began to say.

“Of course, Captain. I would have told you immediately if it had been otherwise.”

“Oh, yeah,” Cynthia chuckled a bit. “I suppose so.”

“Did you rest well?”

“As best as I could. I got a bit of rest, though; don’t worry.”

Wall turned to look at her in the eyes, and Cynthia assumed it was a look of doubt. It was hard to determine expression on Wall, as his eyes were only crystals. She didn’t say anything else, instead looking towards the stairwell doors that had just opened. Entering the deck was Roth Philious, the warlock of the crew. He had managed to gain a cult following that he didn’t want a few weeks ago. He also nearly died to that same cult.

“Good morning, Roth.” Cynthia and Wall spoke almost in sync. 

“Morning.” Roth answered with a neutral expression.

“Did you see Paddy when you came up here?” Cynthia asked curiously.

“He’s probably in his room still.”

“I suppose he’s still got a few minutes.” 

A few minutes passed through with the help of small talk, but eventually, Paddy McLoughlin and Poth Philious joined the others on the deck with little fanfare. Paddy had a mug of his specialty “coffee” in his hand, taking a sip of it after Poth asked him twenty questions that he either couldn’t answer or didn’t want to answer. 

“Good morning, Paddy.” Cynthia chimed with a warm smile. She resisted the urge to give him a kiss, at least for now. It’d be too “unprofessional” in front of others before she gave the morning debrief.

“Do _I_ get a ‘good morning’, mom?” Poth asked.

“Yes, darling. Good morning, Poth.” Cynthia replied, giving a chuckle at Poth calling her ‘mom’. 

“Yay!” Poth squeaked. 

“Anyway, I suppose I should start the daily debrief.” Cynthia spoke, and then gave a pause to remember everything she had to say. “Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we continued our course towards the mountain and had no issues. Today, in order to refuel, we will be landing down for a couple of hours. Looking on the map, we will be landing on a lakeshore, where we will be able to relax a bit before continuing our journey. Additionally, the area seems like a great spot to hunt for food without running into much trouble.”

“So, no bandits?” Poth asked.

“It’s too far out of any villages or towns for there to be anyone there. I’ll still have a patrol to ensure this, though. We all know that I will be quite happy to knock a few of them down to make up for… the last encounter with them.”

Cynthia felt uneasy from the reminder, but she brushed the feeling to the side. What happened last time was something she couldn’t fix now.

“Poth, since you’ve proven yourself quite the hunter, I’ll entrust you with hunting. Paddy or Roth, one of you need to join him just so there isn’t anyone by themselves.”

“I’ll go.” Paddy volunteered. Roth gave a silent “thank you” nod to Paddy.

“Wall, you will be joined by Nur to help with keeping an eye around the ship for trouble. Stay within a mile of the ship so I can keep in contact with Nur if anything happens. Your familiar should be able to help you as well.”

“Understood, captain.”

“Roth, you’ll be with me. _And you better not try anything._ ”

To say that Roth and Cynthia’s relationship has been rocky was an understatement. Everyone tried to reason with her about it, and even Paddy had tried to mention that it wasn’t just Roth’s fault. She didn’t listen to them, keeping to herself with her delusional theories about what had happened. She told herself that Roth had started it, and then the others were either forced to shut up or commanded to help. 

_Section 3, Order 66 my ass. After everything that happened, how has he not questioned if those codes were corrupt or questionable?_ Cynthia thought to herself, eyes narrowed as it came to her mind. She also noted that Roth gave no verbal response, just a nod. She was considering asking him for a verbal confirmation in front of Wall, but she decided that it was too harsh for her liking. Plus, she didn’t want to ruin the day like that early in the morning.

“After a few hours, however, I have given us a few hours of free time before we eat on the lakeshore and then depart.” Cynthia added afterwards, a tiny grin appearing on her face. “Consider it a small break from being on the ship for quite a few days.”

“We get to swim in the lake, mom?” Poth asked with excitement.

“After everyone has done their tasks, yes. Unless a monster decides to jump out of the water while I’m refueling, or a rainstorm hits us, of course.” She responded. “Any other questions?”

None of the crew spoke. 

“Excellent, darlings. Everyone is dismissed, then.”

While the humans and half-elf left to have breakfast, Cynthia walked over to Wall and opened a scroll of parchment with a general map of the surrounding cities and mountains. Notably, Hundelstone, Ekrund, Nurmwohr, and a couple of villages they flew over were crossed off with an x. Hundelstone, however, was circled over the x and had a question mark beside it. Due to it being early in the morning and relatively low light, Cynthia cast _Light_ on her left hand to produce a dim light that illuminated the map as she held it with that hand.

“We’re about here right now, Wall.” She spoke, pointing with her right hand to a remote spot on the map. Then, Cynthia dragged her finger over to a nearby lake. “This is the landing spot. Of course, I mainly picked it to make sure that there was a clearing large enough for the ship, and it seemed like an easy spot.” 

“Affirmative, Captain.” Wall said in his usual tone. “What command word should I use to tell Nur about any situation that may occur?”

“He’ll understand you if you say the command word for getting me. Rather smart for a lizard, huh?”

“Indeed.” Wall spoke. “That reminds me… Captain Cynthia, someone spoke of Nur being the name of the right hand of Sune. Was that the namesake of your steed?”

“I didn’t name him. He told _me_ that his name was Nur.”

Wall seemed to go silent, as if he was processing a lot of information at once. However, he eventually said, “I see. Well, I will assume that I am steering the ship while you prepare for landing protocols?”

“Yes, darling.” Cynthia responded. “If anything happens, let me know, okay?”

“Of course.” 

* * *

Nur watched as the captain walked back into her room, and he seemed quite displeased with Cynthia. Cynthia had a clue as to why he seemed irritated at her, but preferred to keep the talk about the problems quiet for no one else to hear.

 _((Is something the matter, darling?))_ Cynthia communed to Nur in Celestial, who was slowly lashing his tail.

 _((You should be asleep!))_ Nur responded, his feather gills flaring up. (( _Have you slept in the past few days? I see rings under your eyes!))_

 _((I did sleep at least once.))_ Cynthia sheepishly replied, trying her best to put up an argument with Nur.

 _((Cynthia! This is exactly why you-))_ Nur looked towards the door. (( _You aren’t listening to anyone but yourself, are you?))_

_((I’ll listen to you occasionally.))_

_((Obviously not enough! This is exactly how bad things happen, Cynthia!))_

_((Well, it’s not like I’ll get sleep anyway at this point. I do try to sleep, but it’s-))_

Nur hurled himself towards the door. (( _I’ll tattle on you to Paddy.))_ He warned.

 _((Don’t you fucking dare get Paddy in this, Nur. I_ will _un-summon you.))_

_((I know you won’t.))_

(( _Look, this is the one day I want to give to them for everything that’s happened. I want this to go right. Let’s not ruin the day.))_

Nur narrowed his eyes, but found no good argument. She was right, her plan for today was to raise morale. She had specifically told him the previous day once she had figured it out. He was caught in a trap, triumphed by an Aasimar in an exhausted state. Nur was relieved to see that the exhaustion wasn’t from the Plague, but it still worried him. 

_((At least lie down for a few minutes.))_ Nur communed back with an audible sigh. (( _You don’t have to fall asleep or anything, just close your eyes and relax-))_

Nur heard Paddy’s voice on the intercom, but due to the fact that he was not fluent in Common, he could not understand him. Cynthia walked over to her desk and pressed a button before responding back. Cynthia and Paddy had a small conversation, and Cynthia glanced over to Nur once as she said something. Nur could make out a worried glance for a moment as well on Cynthia as the conversation was ending, but her tone kept collected. Cynthia looked down as she cut off the communication and muttered a swear under her breath. 

_((Food’s been prepared. I should get it before it goes cold. Maybe Poth would be interested in playing with you.))_ Cynthia communed to Nur one more time. She walked up to her sentient steed and pushed him aside before walking outside.

Nur decided to not intervene on Cynthia getting food, so he let Cynthia move him out of the way. However, he began to circle around in a frantic state as he tried to piece a way to save Cynthia without getting others involved. Cynthia had too much control with his material form, and Sune was busy with the god wars. 

_((Sune, I don’t know what to do about her! She’s a hopeless cause!))_ He squeaked in his own thoughts, making sure Cynthia wouldn’t hear him. (( _I can save her in a fight, I can’t save her from her own internal ailments! If she keeps staying up, exhaustion will kill her like it almost did with the Plague!_ _She’s getting too smart with it, too!_ _Why do the Featherstones only have intelligence that benefits them doing stupid things?))_

He tried to piece together any help he could find for himself, but he found himself tied thanks to social constructs. He decided to look at the map again, and while he couldn’t read the common on the map, he knew where they were heading. 

_((Mordecai went there a lot for a blacksmith there, right? He had to have travelled there by foot a lot from Vunedar since that’s where his Prayer Beads took him. Why does the mention of a lake seem familiar? What did Mordecai have to do with a lake on the way there?))_

_((Does she know what she is getting herself into? Is there something she remembers about this lake? ))_

He wouldn’t be surprised that Cynthia was trying to follow in her footsteps as her last efforts to connect to her legacy, but it also felt more like a coincidence. Her father would get more excited about bigger beasts to slay in the name of Sune. Cynthia just wanted a break from her troubles that had been thrown onto herself and she refuses to let go.

* * *

When Cynthia had made it into the unused room with the makeshift alchemy table and kitchen, the Philious brothers had already grabbed their food and left. Unsurprisingly, she found herself with an alone moment with Paddy McLoughlin. He sat in a chair close to the alchemy table. She grabbed some of the food and sat in another chair next to the artificer. He looked down at her with a kind smile, and then his expression changed to be carefully investigating her.

“Captain.”

“Yes, darling?” Cynthia responded after swallowing some of her food.

Paddy rolled his eyes after a pause to think on what to say, and then put his plate down to wrap an arm around Cynthia. Cynthia’s shoulders seem to relax, and she leaned into him quite a bit. 

“Are you okay, Cynthia?”

“I’m fine, darling. Just a little tired.”

“You usually don’t curl into me this much when you’re just ‘a little tired’.” 

“What if I just wanted to be with you for a long moment? I still have a bit before I actually have to take over Wall’s post to land the ship.” Cynthia replied, but she knew that it was a poor argument. She placed her food on the desk for a moment to wrap her arms around him and give him a kiss in an attempt to disrupt the artificer’s train of thought. 

However, although it distracted him, her plan backfired somewhat. She felt too calm being close to Paddy that she found herself closing her eyes and drifting asleep on his shoulders. After a moment, she opened her eyes to try to fight it.

“Cynthia. You _need_ to sleep.” Paddy spoke in a slightly different tone.

“Fight me.” Cynthia mumbled, her voice cutely drowsy. 

“When was the last time you got sleep?” Paddy asked with concern rising in his voice.

“I got some last night, don’t worry.”

“How much?”

“... Some.” Cynthia repeated, not caught on lies but unsure of if she slept for a long time.

Paddy sighed again, and then he pulled the captain into his arms. 

She admitted softly that it was quite serene with being this close to him, and she wanted to tell him about how she loved him. Instead, she gave him another kiss before telling him, “I should eat food before it gets too cold. Don’t want to waste the time you spent cooking this food just to have a silly argument about sleep.” She pulled away from him as she continued, “We can save the serious stuff for later. For now, just relax.”

 _Just relax._ Cynthia said before standing up and swaying enough for Paddy to go into an instinctual panic to try to catch her. She thought she could feel his hands in a death grip on her shoulder and waist, but she couldn’t quite piece together why Paddy had done it. She didn’t know how ingrained Paddy had become into trying to catch her from all of the times where she wasn’t conscious to know. 

All she saw was a moment of panic in his eyes that she hadn’t seen since Vadithas handed her the cure and she drank it without missing a heartbeat. It was when that wave of exhaustion hit her without warning and caused her to collapse. She had seen it before a few clear times, right before memories started to blur together in a confusing haze. She knew the expression by heart without having the words for it. On her side, it had always been terrifying to notice because she internally knew that she was about to black out. But everything felt fine minus the minor exhaustion.

“Paddy, I’m fine.” She tried to say to get him to calm his grip on her. “I’m still awake.”

“...Cynthia?” Paddy called, his voice cracked but clearer than anything else in the moment.

Then, Cynthia woke up.

* * *

“Cynthia?”

The paladin snapped awake, rising from Paddy’s lap. She quickly tried to examine the situation she was in, unsure of what made sense at the moment. The easiest thing for her to pick at was her sights and sounds. She was in that weird room where Vadithas had worked on the cure, so waking up there made the past few weeks feel like a long, weird dream for a moment. The loud hum of the engine in the room next to there echoed everywhere, and she could hear Paddy trying to speak to her about something. She ignored him for a bit longer as she tried to comprehend the situation by herself, but she found herself unsure of the situation. 

She didn’t feel like she had passed out. Instead, it was more like she had fallen asleep. Was that moment where she passed out a dream? Or had it actually happened?

She finally decided to focus back on what Paddy was telling her.

“... Captain, are you there?”

“Yes. Sorry, darling.” She responded quickly.

Paddy nodded, and then he wrapped an arm around her again. “I thought I was going to have to bring you back to your room, lady.”

“How long has it been?” The captain asked.

“Probably about twenty minutes.” Paddy replied. “Not too long, at least compared to the other times you’ve decided to take a nap. Now, that doesn’t change the fact that you-“

“Twenty minutes?”

“Yeah-“

Cynthia slowly blinked in shock, and then sluggishly rested her head on his chest. “Wall should be requesting me onto the deck soon.” Cynthia complained, “So I need to get up in a couple of minutes.”

“That’s fine, but just at least stay here for a few more moments.”

She complied, but only because she knew he wouldn’t let her stand. He let her keep her head on his chest, and she could hear his heart slow after that rush of events. Part of her wanted to go back asleep, but she also felt that it wasn’t an option. She was the captain, and she had things to do

After a minute, she slowly got up, and Paddy held her hand as she did. After the two of them stood up, there was a pause as they stared into each other’s eyes. 

“... I should get going.” Cynthia said with an awkward tone. “I love you, darling.”

The captain smirked as she gave her first mate a kiss on the cheek, and then walked off towards the deck of the ship.

* * *

The landing went without an issue, and the ship gently pressed onto silty shoreline of a rather large lake. 

The ship itself had landed on what was a large section of sandy loam, but for the most part, the lake was surrounded by tall, thick grass that grew in the shallow waters and shoreline. Clear, blue water stretched out in front of the crew that appeared to be mostly undisturbed. As the shoreline drew closer to the forest, sparse bushes and relatively large boulders stood above the grass, and then it hit a wall of evergreen trees. Above the trees, the mountains welcomed them to the southwest, and the crew could make out thick patches of snow-capped mountains. With the winter drawing closer, it would be no question that this place probably would also be also covered in snow within the next month or two. 

The fresh air was refreshing for Cynthia, and it helped keep her awake despite her hidden point of exhaustion. Once she had placed the anchors down and fold the air balloon, she took a moment to take a deep breath and take it all in. Nur wagged his tail with excitement at all of the possible playground space. In fact, he turned towards Poth and grabbed him, taking him down the side of the ship and closer to the forest. Poth chuckled, giving the celestial lizard a pat on the head when he was put on the ground. 

“Hey, wait! ((Nur, you’re with Wall!))” Cynthia called to them, switching to Celestial to talk to Nur. 

“((I know, but it’s not like we have to leave immediately, right?))” Nur asked, with Poth asking a similar question with a small whine.

“Yes, but I wanted to make sure you knew the plan.” Cynthia said twice, one time each in Common and Celestial. 

“Nur’s really gotten close with Poth, huh?” Paddy spoke next to the captain.

“Poth’s been playing with Nur, so I would imagine so.” Cynthia replied with a smile. She never could keep up with Nur’s energy, but Poth was a boundless coil of constant energy. She almost wished that Poth could understand Nur, but she also didn’t want Nur to be able to call her out to the others whenever she did something that Nur deemed unhealthy. 

Cynthia finished with the rest of the landing protocol, and she noticed Wall appearing to take notes this time as she did. She ignored him, but she figured if he wanted to ask questions, she would answer them. However, she asked Paddy to help her make a cart to move the boxes of fuel towards the side of the ship with a fuel tank.

When they were alone again, Paddy brought his voice down to quietly speak to Cynthia, “You’re feeling okay, right?”

“I appreciate the concern, but yes, darling, I’m fine.” She responded, “ _A little tired,_ I’ll admit, but I shouldn’t be having to do much if all goes fine. As for _you_ , just try to stay out of too much trouble when you’re hunting with Poth, alright?”

“Yes, Captain. If anything goes wrong, I’m sure we can handle it.” Paddy assured her.

 _Right, both of them can heal._ Cynthia reminded herself. _They should be fine, even without a familiar to send back to me for help._

Eventually, Paddy and Poth sent their farewell to the rest of the crew and headed east towards lower land to hunt. Upon seeing the other two leave, Wall assumed that it was time to begin his patrol around the woods, so he collected Nur and began to wander around the shoreline. The quietness of the wilderness became all that was left of sound as Roth and Cynthia finished their duties in near-silence. 


	2. Lake Shore

Poth circled around Paddy without warning occasionally, but Paddy didn’t really care too much. However, after ten or so minutes, Paddy eventually had to remind Poth that they were the ones supposed to be hunting.

Poth complained a bit, but then his focus shifted into proving that he was the best hunter. Ever.

Paddy kept quiet as Poth began to imitate a variety of prey noises, and the ranger even began to wander loudly in the same style of the animal he was attempting to imitate. Paddy quietly followed Poth, trying to piece together what predator or prey he was trying to lure. Despite how chaotic and uncontrollable Poth seemed most of the time, Paddy could tell there was scripted calculation to everything Poth was doing. 

Half of an hour passed, but eventually something showed up. To the north, Poth noticed a moose walking closer to them. The moose’s rough antlers had a few stray vines caught on them, pausing to shake the vines off of its weapon of choice. 

“One o’ clock, about a hundred yards.” Poth whispered to Paddy. Paddy tilted his head slightly to the right to see the large beast that Poth wanted to take down. “We need to get closer.”

Paddy nodded as affirmation, and he used his arcane magic to transform a few gears into two revolvers. He didn’t know why he was trusting a 13-year-old half-elf at that moment, but he also figured that Poth had done this many times before. 

They managed to close the distance to about 20 yards, at which point they hid behind two old pine trees. Poth quietly prepared an arrow as Paddy finished his own preparations. 

Eventually, the two glanced at each other to notify the other that they were ready to strike. Poth began to mouth a countdown, making sure to not actually speak.

3\. 2. 1.

Paddy took the first shot, aiming the revolver in his right hand at the moose and hitting it in the shoulder. At the sudden sound and injury, the moose turned its attention towards the two humanoids that had suddenly appeared. Poth managed to land an arrow into the moose’s leg, but it didn’t appear to do much injury as Paddy’s shot had. 

The artificer managed to land another shot on the moose, also managing to hit a leg as the beast charged towards Poth. Annoyed at the ranger who looked vaguely moose-like, the moose charged right into Poth, knocking the wind out of the ranger for a moment and sending him back a few feet. The ranger managed to stay standing, but the blow clearly took a toll on him.

As the captain had reminded herself earlier, Poth could heal himself if trouble were to arise. With his non-dominant hand, he pressed on his chest and chanted in the magical language. An ice blue aura seeped into his chest, healing him for a significant amount of health. With his main hand, he tossed his bow to the side and switched to one of his shortswords. 

Paddy, unaware that he was growing stressed about Poth, went wide with his shot. Poth was nearly hit by the shot, but luckily the bullet did not connect with his ally. 

It was a blessing that Poth had healed himself and Paddy didn’t accidentally shoot Poth. The moose took advantage of Poth staying still to heal his wounds and dealt another severe blow to Poth. The low antlers harshly knocked into the ranger’s chest, and Poth made a loud yelp in pain as he staggered backwards. 

Poth could feel dizziness try to take hold of him and put him under, hand weakly on his shortsword. He trembled, knowing that he needed to heal but he had to pull the strength to do so.

His hand clutched his chest again as Poth chanted weakly, the aura being a little less useful. However, it kept him out of the near-death territory.

Desperate to save Poth, Paddy shot both revolvers at the moose. One bullet went wide but the other managed to hit the moose’s rear thigh. The moose tried to bash its antlers into Poth again, but Poth managed to dodge out of the way. 

Poth counterattacked with a quick swipe along its neck, and he smirked as he listened to the pained roar of the moose. It was clearly on its last legs, and Paddy would be able to finish the hunt. It was impressive that the merchant son could even manage to land a bullet while dual-wielding pistols, but he managed to shoot the moose in the head.

The moose fell still in front of them, and they seemed to smile in victory. However, Paddy eventually showed his concern for Poth with the significant damage he had taken. He rushed over to Poth, who gave only a laugh.

“Hey, Paddy, look! I’m mom!” Poth chuckled before he coughed into his elbow. 

Paddy stayed close to Poth while the ranger’s adrenaline began to wear away, making sure Poth wasn’t going to complete the metaphor and collapse. After a while, Paddy healed away most of Poth’s injury as he thought out loud.

“Can’t have you looking bad when we get back for whatever the Captain’s planning, now can we?” Paddy spoke, giving the younger lad a pat on the back. 

“No.” Poth spoke. 

“Great. Let’s get this moose back to the ship, then.”

* * *

_ How’s it going? _ Cynthia communed with Nur after about half an hour.

_ Nothing is here except some wildlife, Cynthia. Kind of hungry. This is boring me. _

_ Well, darling, at least you’re getting to walk around. I’m just standing here dumping boxes of fuel into the ship. _

_ You can talk to someone, though. _ Nur huffed.  _ Metal man doesn’t know any Celestial other than a few words. _

_ Do I really want to talk to Roth? The answer is no. _ Cynthia hissed.

_ Cynthia, why do you hold that grudge? _

_ He betrayed my trust, Nur. _

_ He did it to- _

Cynthia stopped listening to Nur after that point, glancing over to update herself on the warlock’s position. He seemed to be keeping a watch on the backwoods, uninterested in the lake. Zephyr had walked up to beside Roth, wagging his tail and trying to get his attention. Roth chuckled as he gave Zephyr a pat on the head.

Cynthia found her mind slipping off as she tried to recall on grudges, which reminded her of Roland. Then, it slipped back to remembering Mordecai, but she at least was changing topic to the stories he told her.

She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something felt oddly familiar about this whole journey. Perhaps Mordecai wandered with his old party around here before, or something like that. Mordecai went  _ everywhere _ . He probably would have travelled roughly the same path, as Vunedar was a closer walk to the mountains than from Kelemvor’s Snout. However, trying to dig further, she couldn’t find anything.

_ And I’ll keep recollecting less at this rate. _ Cynthia bitterly noted to herself. 

* * *

Wall’s patrol was uneventful as he strolled around the perimeter of the lake. He occasionally glanced over to Nur, who happily chirped as he trotted alongside the warforged. 

If this  _ was _ a right hand of a goddess, what was it doing with Cynthia? Sure, Cynthia was a paladin of that goddess, but the treatment seemed strange. Especially a paladin with such... reckless habits. Surely there’s other paladins of Sune that had more potential than their captain.

He thought about it more, but he eventually let it slide. Until he had further evidence, he could not prove that this was the same Nur as the one Zorin had mentioned briefly. Additionally, he had a job that was of higher priority at that moment: securing the perimeter of the lake. He kept his eyes out for anything that could prove a threat, even glancing at the lake for signs of danger in it. 

It was an odd lake. As he analyzed it, he assumed that this was a lake carved out by a deep glacier, given their current location. However, it wasn’t a smooth descent into the water. It would often start out shallow, perhaps a few feet deep, and then it would plummet into deeper water. It was shaped more like a bowl from what Wall could observe. The wildlife in the lake itself did not seem like a threat. However, he could only see so far down before it became too obscured. 

Suddenly, he heard a rustling noise in the direction of the woods. He turned around expecting a threat, so he held his quarterstaff in front of him as defense. While a threat did approach them, it was two allies: Paddy McLoughlin and Poth Philious. Poth had lunged forward, but had been stopped by the quarterstaff.

“Aww, I thought I had him that time!” Poth spoke with disappointment.

“Looks like you’ll have to try again later, Poth.” Paddy responded. “Anyway, how’s the patrol going, Wall?”

“Other than you, I have not spotted any threats.” Wall answered. He then glanced over to see a cart with a rather large moose inside of it, tied to the railing of the cart with rope. “I see you have finished the task Captain Cynthia had assigned to you.”

“Yeah we did! That moose caused us some trouble, but we took it down eventually.” Poth replied. “I  _ guess _ Paddy helped me hunt it down.”

“You  _ guess _ ? That moose nearly skewered you!” 

“Yeah! It was fine, Paddy!” Poth squeaked.

“Recruit Poth, I believe that you should be glad that Paddy had joined you if his arcane healing was required for your survival.” Wall spoke in an attempt to break up their “argument”.

Poth glanced over at Paddy and stuck his tongue out in defiance of the first mate. After his “statement”, the ranger glanced over to Nur, who seemed to be more than happy to copy what Poth had done.

_ If this is a right hand of a goddess, I doubt it would be that... immature. _ Wall commented quietly. 

“Wall, would you mind if we join you with your patrol?” Paddy asked after the artificer lost his pride for a bit.

“I would not mind the extra help in securing the perimeter.” Wall replied.

Paddy nodded, and then all four of them continued their journey around the lake. In the time, Wall had asked the other two about their health. 

“Don’t worry. I made sure Poth was okay before we loaded the moose into the cart, and I’m sure that I still have plenty of magic left for healing if we need it.” Paddy told Wall, glancing over to Poth for a moment, “The moose didn’t even target me.”

“Excellent, Paddy McLoughlin.” Wall spoke. “As I previously stated, I have yet to run into any potential threats. The wildlife around this area can be a threat, but most do not seem aggressive unless provoked.”

As the humanoids talked, they kept their eyes out for trouble. Nur, meanwhile, kept next to Poth, eventually letting the ranger mount him. He was watching out as well, but he was also sort of goofing around with Poth. Wall mostly ignored it as long as they weren’t provoking anything or being too loud. Paddy had glanced over at the two of them, sighing and then chuckling quietly at how well the two got along.

_ It appears that the perimeter of the lake is safe, at least for a while. However, we should leave before nightfall as a safety precaution.  _ Wall noted to himself as they began to see Roth and Cynthia come into clearer view.

Wall glanced at the water again, and he felt a glitch in his systems as it brought up a random warning.

_ Proceed with caution. A major threat has been detected nearby. _

Wall pulled out his quarterstaff and glanced towards the forest, confused. His systems did not include any sort of built-in threat detection system. Perhaps other models before him had one, but considering everything he’d seen so far, he figured that the warning would have sprung up before.

Ever since he had been with these mercenaries, they had always been in some sort of major threat. The cultists. Scribe. The assassin. And strange glitches have occurred that could not be explained. He remembered Paddy mentioning to him at some point that the artificer had detected divine  _ and _ eldritch magic coming off of Wall. The new shield spells and the stabilizing spell that suddenly registered in his system as if it was always there.  _ Everything that happened with Zorin. _ Glitch after glitch that gave him new battle strategies, new ways to optimize his defensive strategies. He was curious as to why this was happening, but he told himself  _ one investigation at a time. _

“Wall, is everything alright?” Paddy asked.

“I am… unsure, McLoughlin.” Wall replied. “I assume my defensive systems suddenly tripped over something, but I must make sure that is simply a glitch.”

“I’ll come with you and check this area, then.”

They found nothing in the forest nearby that could have possibly been less threatening than the cultists. The worst thing they found was another giant moose, which they decided to simply avoid. Trying to brush it off, they walked back to the lakeshore to meet up with the warlock and paladin. 

Cynthia sighed with relief when she saw the others return together, and then she said, “Welcome back, darlings. How was the stroll?”

“Look, mom! We got a real large moose!” Poth exclaimed, gesturing to the giant moose. Zephyr rushed over to it, but was commanded by Roth to stay away from it.

Cynthia chuckled, and then she actually looked towards the cart with the moose in it. “Oh, you aren’t joking. Well, I’m very proud of you, darling.” She replied.

“Don’t validate him.” Roth warned. “It’ll go to his head.”

“Good. He deserves it.” Cynthia responded almost instantly, and then took a moment before she continued, “Wall, did you secure the perimeter?”

“Of course, Captain Cynthia.” Wall answered. “There are no immediate threats in the surrounding area that are hostile. Some threats appear to be unwilling to become hostile unless provoked.” 

“Excellent. Well, then, everyone is free to do whatever until the sun falls beneath the tall pines. At that point, we can prepare the food and then head towards the mountains further. I do recommend staying within the secured perimeter as a safety precaution, however. Oh, and please stay in the shallow parts of the lake if you choose to walk into it.”

Wall noticed everyone give their own signal of affirmation, and then everyone roughly split off. Nur and Poth bounced towards the water, ready for a bit of fun. Wall noticed Cynthia chuckle at their enthusiasm, but he saw signs that Cynthia was genuinely happy to see Poth and Nur happy. Paddy and Roth had wandered away from the ship, leaving Cynthia with Wall for a moment.

“Captain Cynthia, may I ask why you chose to allow for a delay?” Wall asked.

“I’m surprised that answer isn’t obvious to you, Wall. Morale has been low lately, given… Well, everything, really. I felt like everyone needed some time to relax before we continued onward. And I just wanted to see them happy again.”

“I see. And what of you, Cynthia?”

“Seeing them happy is all I need, really.”

Wall paused for a moment, glancing at the paladin. Based on the past month, Wall knew Cynthia had very clear habits that helped him occasionally see through any time that she wasn’t telling the full truth. He knew she was right about the status of morale, but something felt off about her. However, it eventually clicked.

“Captain Cynthia, you usually show that you feel safe when you do not wear your armor, and yet you wear it currently and show no intention of removing it. I have fully secured the perimeter with assistance, so I can assure you that everything is fine.”

Cynthia paused for a moment, her shoulders tensing after the comment. Wall saw her close her eyes and sigh, and then Cynthia stared at him directly. While it was relatively difficult to see any of Cynthia’s face with the armor on, with direct contact, Wall could see multiple signs of exhaustion written on her face. 

“Captain Cynthia, have-“ Wall tried to say, but got cut off by Cynthia.

“It's a necessary security measure, darling. Can’t have anything happen to them today.” Cynthia spoke, trying to dismiss him. “Anyway, I’m going to join Paddy.”

Wall fell silent, but he took a note for future reference.

_ Notice: The Captain continues to show signs of exhaustion. Action may be taken if there are signs of it worsening. This notice should be referred to Paddy McLoughlin if action is deemed necessary. _

_ Notice: The previous notice is so frequent that I might as well give it a code number for future efficiency of storage. I am now assigning Code 47 to future occurrences of this notice. _

_ Logged Entry: Another glitch happened today, approximately 1 hour and 22 minutes ago. _

_ Causes: Unknown.  _

_ Action Required: Unknown.  _

_ Description: Warning indicated despite having no instrument or sensor for said warning. Major threat mentioned in warning never located. Will keep active to check for any events that relate to this glitch. Divine magic may be involved, but cannot be listed as a probable cause. _

Wall updated his senses, now noticing that Cynthia had met up with Paddy in the shallow water. Wall decided to join everyone else by the shallow waters of the lake but only to keep within distance. 

_ Warning: Entering the lake is not advised. _

Wall agreed with the warning, as he wore heavy armor and would not be able to efficiently return to the surface if he was knocked past the shallow waters into the depths. However, the incredibly specific warning was a reason for concern.

He updated his previously logged entry.

_ Update One: Warnings are strangely specific to the situation and are inefficiently following standard warnings. The newest warning has never been used until today. Action Required: Keep alert until we have departed. _

* * *

Nur squeaked in delight as Cynthia joined the others in the lake, so much that he splashed Poth when he rushed to meet her. Poth, annoyed and wanting payback, rushed after Nur. 

Cynthia seemed to not really pay attention to Nur, instead looking at her boyfriend with a kind smile. However, she eventually did notice Nur when the lizard overcalculated and ran right into the exhausted paladin. Cynthia was knocked right into the water, but she stood up after a moment and shook herself.

_ Nur! _ Cynthia communed with a playfully angered tone.

“Mom! I’m coming to save you!” Poth exclaimed, getting his revenge by splashing a wave of water onto Nur. Nur squeaked in surprise, and then he used his tail to swipe the water between him and Poth. 

Roth, knowing well he’d get brought into this next, decided to try some warlock tactics against his younger brother. Purple energy swirled around his right hand and became a magical gauntlet as he struck the water with  _ Warlock Punch _ . The lake’s water caved in and rippled furiously outward, and the water lashed out at Poth. Roth seemed pretty proud of himself, and he made a small top hat with  _ Prestidigitation _ to celebrate, which he placed on top of his own head. 

Poth felt part of his pride leave for a moment after his brother taunted him with the top hat. The ranger flicked a bit of water at the hat, “knocking” the hat off. 

Cynthia laughed as a play-fight broke out among the Philious brothers and Nur, but then she continued to glance at Paddy. However, an idea struck in the captain’s head. A devious smirk crawled onto Cynthia’s face as she grabbed some of the water and threw it at Paddy. 

“Lady, I wasn’t involved in that!” Paddy spoke with a shocked expression.

“What, afraid of getting your clothes wet, merchant’s son?”

“No!” Paddy stammered, and then added, “You made a bad decision adding me into this, captain.”

“Oh, how so?”

Paddy slashed a large chunk of water with his hand, the lake flinging itself onto Cynthia. 

She tried to dodge out of the way, but she never was great at being dexterous. After being attacked by the wave, Cynthia called out, “Oh, now you’ve done it, darling!” Cynthia spun in the water, using the momentum to create a bigger splash at the artificer. 

Paddy was stunned by the splash, and so Cynthia ran up to him and grabbed him in her arms. “Now you can’t get me back!” Cynthia spoke triumphantly, her hands grabbing onto his for a long moment. 

“Alright, I guess you win this time.” Paddy replied. “But it won’t be easy next time.”

“Sure~” Cynthia sang back, turning the hand-holding into a hug. She gave a laugh that sounded genuine as she put her head on his shoulder.

Paddy looked away from the others, hiding his face as his face warmed up a bit. “Cynthia, you’re too cute sometimes.” He mumbled.

“You as well, darling.” Cynthia replied quietly, and then pulled away from the hug. 

Cynthia glanced over to the others, who seemed to be resolving their own war. However, it was a bit unfair for Roth after Nur joined sides with Poth. Roth insisted it was a draw, but Cynthia would have argued otherwise. Nur gave one last tail lash at the water to splash Roth, and then he returned to Cynthia’s side. 

Everyone broke into their own conversations again for a while. Cynthia and Paddy made bad one-liners towards each other, and with each round they only got worse and even cheesier. Meanwhile, the others tried to figure out how they were going to divide the moose so that it would be easier to cook.

The sun was still a few degrees away from the top of the trees, so they didn’t worry about it too much. The others had commented that they still had plenty of time to prepare for dinner. However, what time they thought they had would be cut short.

Roth blinked when he noticed some of the sand suddenly shift in an abnormal direction a few yards away from Paddy and Cynthia. It was a rather large patch of sand, too, which made it seem suspicious. However, he noticed that Poth and Wall were also analyzing the same spot. The three fell quiet for a moment, unsure if it was really an issue or not.

Then the sand shifted even closer to the two idiots, but Paddy seemed to notice everyone looking at them. He stopped talking to Cynthia for a moment, and then tried to do some quick math to figure out what had everyone interested. 

The sand was  _ rising _ . 

Paddy backed closer to the shore, hoping Cynthia would follow him.

“Darling, what’s the matter?” Cynthia spoke curiously.

“Cynthia, I strongly advise-“ Wall tried to comment to Cynthia, but the warning had come too late. Suddenly, a large monster emerged from the sand below her, and in that same instant, the monster had grabbed her with a large claw. Shock transitioned to panic as she took in a breath, and then Cynthia and the monster were both plummeting underwater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those reading this monster of a fanfic, thank you! I realize that there's some people who aren't on my server who are reading this, so I'm going to throw this out here:
> 
> These chapters will be following a weekly update schedule until Chapter Five is released. I do have a "bonus chapter" in the works, and if I choose to post that, it will come out on New Years Eve. Note that I live in the United States, so it may be the next day for some or most people.  
> December 8th (today)- Lake Shore  
> December 15th- Chapter Three  
> December 22nd- Chapter Four  
> December 29th- Chapter Five  
> December 31st (maybe)- Bonus Chapter
> 
> Oh right! Warlock Punch is a homebrew spell made by Roth's player and the DM. You'll see it get used more in other fanfics, as it is his signature spell (that isn't Eldritch Blast). And yes, it's a reference to Ganon's Warlock Punch in Smash Bros. It does damage and then knocks a creature back 10 feet on a failed STR save.


	3. Lake Depths

_ Update Two: The warnings may have been linked to the current emergency at hand. Action Required: Strategize the best solution to this problem. _

Wall internally debated the most efficient use of resources as quick as he could process it.

_ The current emergency would be resolved most likely through underwater combat. Any non-magical ranged or melee weapons are inefficient in this situation. This eliminates the effectiveness of most of the crew. Heavy armor would also be inefficient, eliminating myself as another solution. _

He glanced at the monster to connect it to any knowledge in his database. Luckily, he found an answer within it as someone asked him what the monster was.

“The beast in question appears to be a chuul.” He quickly answered, and then went back to his thoughts that took place at inhuman speeds.

_ From Descending Ranking of the crew: _

_ Cynthia Featherstone: At the worst odds. She will be able to hold the chuul off for a while if things go ideally. However, she may not be of any use in her current state. _

_ Paddy McLoughlin: Inefficient. It is assumed that he lacks proficiency in this type of combat. Additionally, his projectile weapons may not provide offensive support.  _

_ Myself: Inefficient. I am unable to provide efficient offensive support in these situations, and I would not be able to float. _

_ Roth Philious: The most optimal. Has magical abilities at long range and can survive more time than the previously mentioned human. _

_ Poth Philious: Inefficient. See Paddy McLoughlin. _

_ Nur: Unknown. But given Nur’s hesitation to chase after, it appears his abilities stay with climbing only. Strange. _

However, before Wall could give his analysis, Roth shot out two beams of eldritch energy towards the chuul.

“I know what I have to do.” Roth spoke. The warlock glanced at the others, mouthing something to himself before diving into the water. 

It seemed Paddy also wanted to help, but Wall stopped him. “Unfortunately, your combative abilities and strengths are against you this time.” Wall assured the artificer, “It would be possibly detrimental if you were to join before the situation is resolved.”

“Then what do I do, Wall?”

“Wait.”

“And put everything into Roth alone?”

“And the captain, yes.”

Paddy desperately wanted to argue against it, but he felt that Wall was right. Still, he put a hand on the back of his head, as if he was trying to think of something to do. 

“I guess Roth’s gonna get the chance to redeem himself to her.” Poth said, but he was worried about them as well.

* * *

Cynthia tried to pull herself away from the chuul’s grasp, but she couldn’t wiggle enough to break free of its grasp. The monster had felt her weak attempt at escaping, and it seemed annoyed. In irritation, the chuul bashed into her, causing critical damage to her ribcage. She did her best to hold her breath as she felt the strenuous pain along her side, and she barely managed to do so along with avoiding another wave of poison. It stung horrendously, and she realized that her limbs had nearly locked up in place. 

In her injured state, she tried to slash at the chuul again, but instead she left herself exposed to another crush by the lobster claws. However, the chuul had used enough energy from the previous pincer attacks that it could not pierce through her as it threw both pincers at her. Deeper and deeper they ascended, the light beginning to become dimmer. Cynthia, becoming aware of the situation, placed her hand along where she could feel her broken ribcage and used  _ Lay on Hands _ to heal the wound. Preparing to go back on the offensive, she chanted through gritted teeth a vow that she would end the chuul’s life Vow of Enmity. Determination kept her focused enough to completely ignore the next wave of poison and pincers.

A sudden bolt of purplish light descended upon them, followed by another. Both bolts pierced into the monster, and the chuul let out a roar of pain. Cynthia thanked the gods that her crew hadn’t abandoned her just yet, and then called onto her divine powers to cast  _ Bane _ . Yet again, through gritted teeth, it managed to work. Golden shackles surrounded the monster, restricting the movements of the chuul. 

Unaware of the power of the bane, the chuul left itself open for another attack as it missed twice, but Cynthia couldn’t quite pierce through the armor with her sword. As this happened, two more bolts shot down, one going wide and another connecting with the aquatic beast.

Cynthia focused her energy into one swing, managing to finally break through the armor. Knowing she would have few chances of being able to hit the monster, she concentrated on her divine power and unleashed radiance. The chuul couldn’t even counter her attacks or try to poison her.

With all of the blood swirling around them and the growing distance below the surface, Roth wasn’t able to hit the chuul again with his eldritch energy. Also realizing the growing distance, he decided to hold on more bolts and swam rapidly to try to keep within range.

However, Cynthia managed to chip at the lobster-esque creature more, but she was not willing to enhance the damage done. Instead, she tried again to escape, but it felt like the lobster only dragged her closer with her struggle. She realized that perhaps her exhaustion was contributing to her inability to escape. The silver lining was that it was dragged her too deep into its grasp, now unable to hit her without damaging itself. It tried to poison her again, but the stinging sensation Cynthia received quickly receded.

Cynthia, seeing the monster was beginning to grow weak itself, chipped more armor away to expose a feeble core. The chuul let out a fearsome screech as it desperately fought to keep alive. It pierced Cynthia in its rage, and then used a more potent amount of the poison. For the first time, Cynthia panicked inside her head as she found herself completely locked. 

_ Oh, gods no! _ She yelled to herself, unable to scream or do anything other than focus on regaining control. She managed to do so, but the chuul gave unrelenting struggles as it bashed her shoulder. She felt the world blur out for a moment from the pain, but she barely managed to find focus as the chuul seeped more poison. She struck with her longsword, hoping that she could end it there, but it refused to die. Instead, it bashed Cynthia again, this time leaving Cynthia now critically injured. In a panic, she placed her hand on her shoulder and drew out what little magic she had left, using it to heal herself to stay alive. However, the chuul was no longer interested in trying to attack her. Instead, she felt a sudden, unstoppable surge of shock as it used what poison it had left.

_ Frozen, unable to run. Unable to dodge. Unable to strike back. I was bare to the fates of the gods who watch the mortals. I was running out of breath, too, and I knew that I had well crossed the point of no return for making back to the surface conscious. My memory blurs from here on out.  _ Cynthia would write in the future. In the then-present, she was terrified. She could see more eldritch bolts miss, and the monster seemed to think it had won. It dragged the prey further away, and Cynthia could only watch. There was nothing changing for a while as it kept dragging her further away from Roth.

300 feet separated Roth and the chuul. Roth only had one more chance.

He lifted his hands, putting time into making sure the bolts with connect with the chuul.

And then he heard a familiar voice ring in his head. Some clarity from a dark power made him see what should be.

Cynthia was going to live today.

The bolts, two of them, ignored the water currents as they drove 300 feet beyond his reach, one a bit wide. However, the other couldn’t have been more perfect. The weak spot Cynthia had been chipping at was the point of entry for the bolt, and the chuul gave one final cry to the cosmos before it met death.

* * *

_ It all happened so quickly _ , Cynthia would later mention in her journal.  _ The panic. Chanting between my teeth to stay alive, hoping that my magic would even activate. I feel like I’ve been sitting at my desk for hours on end, thinking about if there was any way it could have gone better. I couldn’t run. Armor was a necessity, but I nearly drowned from the weight of it. If Roth hadn’t saved me, then I wouldn’t be here.  _

Cynthia was locked in a state of paralysis for longer than she wanted to be. She was freed from the dead grasp of the large creature, but it would be a noticeable amount of time before she managed to regain control.

But now she couldn’t swim up. Looking up as she walked along the bottom of the lake, she guessed it was about two hundred or so feet. She was barely able to hold her breath for much longer. She wanted to tell Roth to leave her, as she didn’t believe that Roth even had the capacity to hold his breath for any longer. He’d be wasting breath coming down here to save her if they both drowned a hundred feet below the surface. 

He kept swimming towards her, to her disbelief. Even after everything between them, he was still willing to put his life on the line for her.  _ A warlock, completely opposite from the holy status of a paladin. _ She thought to herself, but she was curious to see if they’d make it out at the end.

_ Hey, Nur? Are… Are you there? _ Cynthia communed to her steed.

_ Cynthia! _ A voice chimed back in Celestial.  _ Where did you go? _

_ Two hundred or so feet underwater, getting my ass saved by a warlock of all people. _ Cynthia responded, enjoying the conversation for a moment. She could see Roth getting closer to her, and after about a minute and a half after the fight ended, they met up. Roth pulled Cynthia close, and then they began a very slow ascent upwards. Cynthia didn’t really know what to do, but she knew that she was practically struggling for breath. She imagined that he wasn’t too much better, but she supposed that being unscratched helped him in this situation. At least compared to her, who couldn’t keep up with where she was actually in pain.

The two worked together to drag themselves to the surface, and at some point, Paddy had leaped into the waters to come to their aid. She had assumed that Wall probably suggested it to him, but she also knew that he was probably there to also save her. 

Internally, Cynthia knew of her limits and knew well that she could tell that she was about to slip. The first sign had already began to rise of feeling like everything’s distant from her. Additionally, worsened by her exhaustion, she felt tired despite her current panic to try and reach the surface. It was so close, yet so far from her. The captain fought against the feelings desperately, but she ran out of breath, and then everything went out of her control. What she could faintly remember was a terrifying struggle to try to breathe but only being met by water. She could recall Paddy looking to her in horror, and then glancing back at Roth, who was undoubtedly next in the next half-minute. 

The energy it took to keep conscious eventually was too expensive for her, and she slipped into being unconscious.

Meanwhile, the other two dragged themselves and Cynthia a little further. Roth looked like he was also beginning to slip, and Paddy knew well that he wouldn’t be able to keep both of them floating and alive if Roth blacked out. He prayed that at least Roth could make it to the surface, and he believed that his prayers were heard.

Three bodies broke the surface of the water. Two were conscious, one was definitely unstable. The original trio landed on the shoreline after another moment, with Wall, Poth, and Nur beginning to surround them. 

Roth had managed to make it to the shoreline, but he could definitely feel his body trying to quickly regain itself. He noticed his younger brother rush to his aid, and he knew why that was the case. He just didn’t want to admit it.  _ Why am I struggling still? _ He thought to himself, but he couldn’t quite hear it fully. He wasn’t in any sort of pain other than choking on lake water, but he felt incredibly weak from the lack of oxygen. He was slightly better than his captain, though, as he decided to not do everything to fight against the tide. The warlock managed to stay conscious for a few more moments before collapsing into the sand. 

Poth, noticing his brother unresponsive, immediately changed actions to helping stabilize him. However, before he could, Wall walked over to Roth and cast  _ Spare the Dying _ , quickly solving the issue. After nodding thanks to Wall, Poth turned around to see the other scene, curious as to what happened with Cynthia. 

Cynthia snapped awake, clearly in tremendous pain but managing to stay conscious to cough out water from her lungs. She dug her elbows into the sand and clawed at the ground with her hands, trembling as she managed to support herself while she tried to clear her system. She could feel everything for a moment, and she wanted all of her feelings gone as she felt sick to her stomach. She knew Paddy and possibly another voice were trying to speak to her, but it was drowned out by ringing in her ears. Determined to try to take control of the situation, she tried to at least sit up, but she felt Paddy ease her into a curled position. 

“Cynthia, please…” Paddy spoke, but Cynthia couldn’t hear the rest. 

The paladin realized what she wanted was going to be difficult as she suddenly found herself waking up again lying on the ground, and then another moment she was being held by someone. It felt like someone was pressing the sides of her head together as she woke up again, but she managed to stay awake this time long enough to try again at staying conscious. She was definitely being carried by Paddy this time, and she could hear the sound of wood underneath them. 

Paddy seemed to notice her awake, and he seemed alarmed by it. 

“She’s still trying to fight it.” Cynthia heard Paddy say to someone else, glancing in a forward direction. He then looked down at Cynthia and gave a sigh before speaking to her, “Lady, please just rest. Everything’s covered.”

“But, Paddy…” Cynthia managed to say, drowsiness overwhelming her little wisdom and intelligence. 

“No ‘but’s. Your body is under way too much stress for you to be awake.” Paddy interjected, “Whatever you want to do right now can wait a couple of hours.” 

“How’s Roth-”

“He’s fine, he’s currently in his room asleep. And he’s not even injured.” 

“I… I’ve been through worse.”

“That doesn’t mean you should ignore what’s happened to you today, Cynthia.”

Cynthia seemed like she wanted to argue, but she couldn’t find a good counter-argument. Before she could try to pull something out of thin air, Paddy leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead, and then continued walking. 

She couldn’t tell where they were until she heard a door open, and then she felt Paddy lay her down on a hammock. Cynthia glanced up to see him look down at her, say something, and then leave the room. A few moments later, she felt herself slip back into unconsciousness again.


	4. Aftermath

Cynthia recalled the feeling of plaster tightly bound around her upper body and neck as she came back to consciousness a few hours after… whatever had happened. She could feel her body plead to her to stay still, and this was one of those times where she couldn’t quite fight back. Her first attempt to shift into a comfortable position brought her agonizing pain by her ribcage and shoulder. She only moved in reaction to sudden pain, curling further into a ball as she held back a scream. Her hands gripped the edge of the hammock hard enough that her knuckles paled. 

She wanted to cry but she held that back as well while the world continued to try to give her nausea on top of everything else that was wrong. She thought she had the perfect plan for the day, but it crumbled in a matter of minutes. Everything returned to normal, with all of her mentality caught on the edge and inches away from crumbling like the rest.

She tried to heal away at least some of the pain only to remember that the cure had limited her magic output severely. Golden light disappeared into wisps right in front of her eyes, and she let out a swear louder than she expected while she watched her hope die with the wisps of magic. However, after she swore loudly, she launched herself into a coughing fit, which made her ribcage hurt even more. 

She heard a squeak nearby, which loudly approached Cynthia as a giant lizard tried to comfort her. 

_ Cynthia, haven’t you learned that moving is bad for you after similar situations? _

_ I can’t control myself. If my body wants to cough violently, that’s not a problem I can handle!  _ Cynthia snapped back in Celestial as her body continued to try and cough up whatever water remained in her lungs. 

_ Okay, before you were uncontrollably coughing you could have not moved, but- _

_Nur, don’t try to act like you fucking know what’s best for me._ _I was just trying to get into a comfortable spot so I can go back to sleep._ Cynthia interrupted Nur as she finally managed to regain control of herself. She lifted her head off of her arm and glared up at Nur. 

His feathers flared up at the insult, but he didn’t know if the argument was worth the time. He knew she would continue to not listen to him, so he decided to watch as Cynthia kept wincing from the multitude of injuries. However, even he couldn’t bear seeing her in that much pain. He turned his back to her and lied down again, tail swishing every so often in annoyance.

Cynthia was tempted to de-summon him, but she didn’t have the heart for it. Nor did she think she could execute the right somatic components to do it with her shoulder in the state that it was in.

“Fuck it.” She muttered to herself in Common. “There’s better ways to go back to sleep rather than trying to deal with this bullshit.”

She paused for a moment to try to gain enough willpower and strength to try to stand. She knew that the odds were stacked against her that she’d be able to stand, but that’s exactly want she wanted. There was a small chance that the sudden movement would consume whatever strength she had and cause her to go into a dizzy spell, which then would cause her to faint. This was the chance she was desiring at that moment, because she knew that she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for a long while, or at least until her injuries managed to fully heal. 

_ Oh, how I've come to aid me. _ Cynthia mentioned to herself, the paladin ready to ignore her health again in exchange for not having to worry about gaining more exhaustion from not sleeping, or so she thought in her mentally unstable state. She didn’t remember at that moment that it would really only make her exhaustion worse.

Her volatile willpower readied her, giving her the determination to stand. She could feel herself growing sick at the thought that this was her only plan, but she was deep into her madness that she didn’t realize that she could just wait everything out. As long as Paddy didn’t see her doing this, she assured herself, it would be fine. This would all turn out okay.

Her left hand gripped the edge of the hammock as her right hand held the side of her rib cage that had been crushed. She kept hearing a tiny voice trying to reason with her, but it was drowned out by everything else. Her knees trembled, trying to convince her to stop but failing to be heard over a swirl of troubled thoughts. 

Cynthia felt her feet gently touch the floor, and then she knew there was no going back once she shifted her weight fully. Instantly, she sprung forward, and her feet panicked under the sudden responsibility. The rapid movement also caused all of the agony she felt to intensify to the point where she would feel her stomach drop and twist. In moments, her survival instinct tried to fix the situation, but her low health made it hard without the adrenaline she felt in combat. 

_ What did I say? _ She could hear Nur screech at her as she smirked at him in spite.

_ I’m gonna do what I want.  _ She managed to get sent to him as all of her senses began to shut off. She remembered that normal feeling of suddenly feeling incredibly tired, her sweet victory that her body decided to give into collapsing. She didn’t know if she even hit the ground before passing out again.

Meanwhile, Nur gave an upset squeak as he made sure that Cynthia didn’t destabilize her health too far, and then made a series of chirps as if trying to scold her on making the situation worse on herself in the long-term. The noise had managed to grab the attention of Poth, who walked into the room to see why Nur was so distressed.

He recognized Cynthia on the floor and rushed over to her to make sure she wasn’t dead. He was relieved to find that she was breathing, but she was still unconscious. He tried to shake her awake, but she was out. 

“Poth!” Nur spoke, thankful that he knew the child’s name to at least get his attention. However, all of the distressed rambling Nur followed with made no sense to the half-elf, but Poth could figure that whatever happened had made Nur suddenly concerned. 

The blank stare Poth gave back at Nur let the lizard know that Poth had no clue what he was saying. Nur raised his shoulders with further irritation, and then decided to play a game of charades with the ranger. 

Nur raised his tail and pointed it Cynthia’s limp form, and then pointed it at the hammock. Poth nodded in response.

The lizard then lied down, pretending to sleep but kept his tail pointed at the captain. Then, Nur jumped up dramatically, looked around, and then scampered a few inches before dramatically falling down again. 

Nur watched as the child slowly pieced together the scene that Nur was trying to recreate. Suddenly, the kid’s hazel eyes widened, and then Poth nodded back Nur.

Nur made a happy squeak in response, and then wandered back over to Cynthia. He curled around the Aasimar as he continued to squeak in a worried tone, but he was at least glad that there was someone else who could help now. 

* * *

Poth walked up on the deck, remembering that Paddy had been out on the shore preparing dinner with Roth. Sure enough, the two were still there, having a small chat as they waited for the moose meat to cook. Wall was out on the deck itself, keeping guard with his familiar. Poth ignored Wall as he walked down the ramp towards the others, glancing at his brother for a moment before getting the current captain’s attention.

The warlock did have the terrifying moment of being unconscious for a few moments, but his ailments recovered faster than Cynthia. However, being cautious, Roth had assured the rest of the crew that he would take it easy for the rest of the night. Poth didn’t want to admit it, but he was still somewhat worried about his older brother. 

As he turned toward Paddy, he decided that there really wasn’t a point in trying to gently tell Paddy that his girlfriend had woken up and then immediately passed out again. He already could tell Paddy could read his worried expression that he couldn’t remove.

Roth thought that Poth was still worried about him, so he spoke first, “Poth, I’m fine. I will go back to sleep in our room if I feel worse again. I’ve told you this many times already.” 

Poth clasped his hands together, his fingertips brushing the tip of his nose. He then moved his wrists so that his hands pointed at Paddy. 

“That’s not it, Roth.” Poth replied quickly to Roth, and then told Paddy, “It’s about mom, actually.”

“What about Cynthia?”

“She  _ was _ awake, good news. Bad news, she isn’t now and whatever happened, Nur is very distressed about it.”

“I want to be surprised, but this is the lady paladin we’re talking about here.” Paddy answered, and then glanced over at Roth before he said, “Alright, feel free to use your flame magic. Just don’t burn the ship or the meat with it.” 

Roth nodded in reply, and then grabbed his amethyst orb in preparation. 

The ranger and artificer headed back towards the ship, again walking right past Wall without a word, and then headed into the captain’s quarters.

* * *

Paddy quickly examined the scene in front of him. Nur was curled next to Cynthia, rambling in Celestial to the captain. However, upon their entry, Nur peeked upwards and seemed delighted that Paddy was there. 

Nur backed away from Cynthia, letting Paddy examine her.

She was definitely unresponsive, but she was breathing gently. Like Poth, he nudged Cynthia to try to get a response, but there was nothing. 

“So, what happened?” Paddy asked the ranger.

“I think she woke up and then passed out again. That’s what I think Nur tried to tell me.”

“How did Nur tell you?”

“Through a very complicated game of charades.”

“Do you think you can get Nur to repeat the charade again?”

“I think?”

Poth looked towards Nur, pointed at Paddy, then to Cynthia, and then to Nur. 

Nur nodded before repeating the charade.

“... Oh.” Paddy responded. “Poth, I think  _ she  _ knocked  _ herself _ out.” He gave his classic sigh of disappointment with an undertone of concern as he looked at Cynthia again. 

“Captain, you’re really starting to worry me.” He muttered, and then he lifted Cynthia in his arms. “Poth, tell your brother that I’m going to be keeping an eye on the lady here. I should probably be there when she wakes again.”

* * *

Cynthia found herself in the same situation that she was in before when she woke up, except now she could feel a dull pain in the back of her head. As her vision regained, she realized that she wasn’t even in her room, quickly recognizing it as Paddy’s room. She also noticed Paddy beside her, sitting in a chair and glancing right at her.

“Darling-“ Cynthia began to try to say.

“Captain.” Paddy replied, “I’m glad to see you awake finally.”

“How’s Roth?” Cynthia said, trying to dance around the issue that was about to be brought up.

“He’s fine, unlike you apparently.”

“I’m getting there.” Cynthia huffed.

“You’d get there sooner if you didn’t try to knock yourself out.”

“Look, what else can I do?” She hissed, but as she began to tense, everything shot pain at her. She gave a whimper as she loosened and lay her head back on the pillow. “It’s not like I can sleep like this.” She weakly added.

“You have to. I know it’s not great, but we both know what happened this morning. You’re already exhausted, and you’re not going to be able to recover until you rest. You’re the one supposed to be making decisions, and you’re not going to be able to make them if you’re tired.”

Cynthia gave a look of doubt towards the artificer at first, and then looked up at the ceiling, defeated. “Darling, I love you, but the options of getting me to sleep aren’t looking so great. I could drink until I fall asleep, or we find some other way to care advantage of my current weakness and sleep that way.”

“I’m not knocking you out.”

“I know you aren’t. Why do you think I knocked myself out?”

Paddy and Cynthia sat in silence for a moment, the captain glancing diagonally towards the floor and placing her left arm around her neck. After a minute, their awkward silence was broken by the sound of Wall on the intercoms requesting for Paddy.

“I guess I should go check that.” Paddy spoke, “Get some rest, please.”

However, she never did sleep, doing her best to hide behind lies and carefully-planned orders during debriefs. She managed to slowly recover some of her injuries and hid whatever was left behind her armor. Her ribcage injuries were hard to hide, but she managed to do it. During the night, she would pretend to sleep until the other crew members except Wall slept peacefully, and then she would find something to do in her room. She was lucky that Paddy was such a heavy sleeper, else he would have woken up and noticed Cynthia gone the first night.

The coffee Paddy made in the mornings helped provide a bit of energy, at least enough from keeping her from collapsing from exhaustion. She kept a smile and made sure she followed her typical day to the dot. She worried that if she strayed at all from it, it would raise suspicion. She knew that her exhaustion would eventually catch up to her, but she also knew that it would let her sleep without any problems. 

She remembered being nervous on the third sleepless night, two days after the incident, when Wall had requested her on deck. She walked up to the deck and asked Wall what the issue was.

“Tomorrow will be the last time we need to land for refueling.” Wall mentioned. “Is there anywhere on the map that you think would be ideal?”

“Oh! There’s no particular place I had in mind for this refuel. Just keep an eye out for large clearings and let me know if you find one, darling.”

“Understood, Captain.” Wall spoke. “I will notify you if there appears to be a pleasant landing location.”

Cynthia gave a nod to Wall, and then turned around to head back. However, Wall had one more question.

“Captain Cynthia, have you managed to recover your injuries? We will be landing in a few days to continue the expedition on foot, so we do need you back at optimal health before then.”

“Yes; everything appears to have been healed at this point.” Cynthia replied. “I was able to heal the remainder of the injuries today.” 

Another planned response. She knew that Wall might have asked her to use magic as confirmation, but by saying she used it, Wall could not have been able to tell if a lack of magic would be from healing or the side effects of the cure. In truth, she had not been able to use any of her magic again in days. She knew she could probably still summon her wings if it was necessary, but that was mostly it. 

Wall seemed to be processing something, as if he managed to see through her lie but couldn’t find anything to prove it. 

“Perhaps we could spar just to confirm that you are ready for the expedition after we land for refuel tomorrow.” Wall spoke.

_ Well, I wasn’t planning on that. _

“What are the rules of this spar?”

“One minute. If you can last that long against my attacks, then you will prove yourself as ready.”

_ I could probably stall for a minute. _ Cynthia spoke to herself.  _ I definitely could not bring down Wall in a minute even if I was perfectly fine, but he says that I don’t have to subdue him. _

“I’ll accept, then.” Cynthia spoke. “I’ve been wanting to spar you anyway, simply because we both have similar strengths in combat.”

Wall nodded in reply, and then said, “That is all.”

“See you in the morning, then.”

Uneventfully, Cynthia walked back to her room, but after she passed through the doors to the stairwell, she clutched her side. _Only a minute. My armor should be able to get me through that, and I can at least try to hit him._ _It’s not like he can take me down in one hit._ She told herself, trying to strategize. _I could try to dodge him, but I think that would be too unlike my normal strategy._

She stayed up, planning and writing down ideas, but she made sure again to keep Nur unaware of her insomnia. She wanted to keep awake so that she was ready for anything else that may happen, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tempted to just post the last chapter right now. It's done and has been done for a while. But alas, I must be good and keep to the schedule. 
> 
> This was probably the roughest section to write out of the whole story, just simply because it just highlights Cynthia's post-Session20 downward spiral into madness. While it is a lot more tame in canon, I do like to imagine this is possible with canon Cynthia if the upcoming arc just goes to hell for her. At least, saying this as the person who plays her. I should write happier moments, but I guess I'm not comfortable with writing them? It's weird.
> 
> Anyway, final chapter is gonna be posted the 29th assuming I follow my word.


	5. Trial.

In the morning, she felt worse. 

She checked her shoulder and side again, but they looked healed. The other wounds weren’t visible anymore as well, but she felt weaker. She could feel something pulling at her, begging her to sleep, but she didn’t feel it was enough to randomly cause her to pass out on the floor. 

Close. She mentioned to herself. But that spar might help. Maybe it’ll tire me enough that I do pass out after I take care of everything.

She chuckled a bit, thinking about what Jinri would say to her about all of this. Oh, she’d be so mad at her for tearing herself apart like this. Perhaps Jinri would just not let Cynthia leave her sight if this happened back at the temple. 

She would scold me and then wrap me in a warm blanket. Cynthia mentioned to herself, and without realizing it, she had wrapped herself in her own blanket. She missed that feeling too much than she would have liked to admit. But she had a Plague to banish and a sword to grab. Going out of her way to even grab the sword was questionable at best, knowing that in the two weeks that had almost passed, the Plague could have spread closer to Vunedar. 

She pressed a button on her intercom.

“Good morning. The morning debrief will be happening in twenty minutes. See, I even gave you time to get out of bed today, darlings. I will be disappointed in you if you’re late. It’s happening on the deck again.” Cynthia spoke. “Also, I’m making coffee before the debrief.”

She lifted her hand off of the intercom and then went into the storage room to make some coffee. Of course, she used Paddy’s recipe for it, so it was more of a thick sludge than normal coffee. However, it was extra caffeinated compared to the weak taste of the more fluid variety. 

“Good morning, Captain.”

Cynthia tried not to wince as she felt a felt press on her shoulder. She turned around to see Paddy.

“You’re awake early.” Cynthia said with a smile. “You’re usually late to the debrief, McLoughlin.”

“Well, I heard coffee and decided I wanted some as well.” Paddy answered, and then looked directly at Cynthia. A neutral expression covered his face as he said, “You look pale, Cynthia. Are you okay?”

“Yes, darling. Perhaps it’s just the lighting in here.” She tried to assure him.

“And the bags under your eyes?”

“Those are always there.” She answered with a laugh. “I can’t get rid of those even if I wanted to.”

Paddy narrowed his eyes, but he couldn’t find any other way around her lies. “Maybe it is, then.” He commented, “I’m just worried about you, lady.”

“Oh, don’t worry too much about me. Plus, we won’t be on the ground for too long today.”

“Refuel day?”

“Yeah. I’m letting Wall handle the landing location this time so my bad luck doesn’t turn on us.”

“Alright.” He poured his own coffee, and a bit of time passed before they headed up towards deck. 

* * *

“Yesterday was uneventful, thank the gods. We all followed our typical schedules, and then went to sleep. At least I hope you all went to sleep. Today will be a refuel day, but the landing time may vary. I’ll do my best to give everything a half-hour’s notice before we land. After we refuel and keep watch, everyone will be free for another hour before we take off again. However, last night, Wall and I agreed to a spar, so you’re welcome to watch if you want.” Cynthia debriefed everyone, and then dismissed everyone from the meeting. She stayed on deck with Wall to keep an eye out for landing locations. 

“3 ‘o clock, about a mile out.” Wall spoke up after an hour. “That looks like an ideal spot for landing.”

Cynthia walked towards the bow of the ship to examine the location. It was a pine-covered area, but there was a notable break in the trees. She tried to see if it was a lake again, but it just appeared to be a random clearing.

“No smoke. So far it’s a candidate. Let’s get a bit closer though before we make a final decision.”

“Understood, Captain.” Wall replied, giving a nod. 

A few minutes passed as they flew closer to the location. She kept an eye on anything that might be off about it, but it still seemed okay. 

“There’s no obvious signs of it being a bandit camp, and it’s not all one lake.” Cynthia told Wall. “Your opinion, Wall?”

“There is a chance of it being a tight landing, but I see no objections otherwise.” Wall answered. “Are you wanting to land there?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will let you announce it before I hand the wheel over to you.”

Cynthia walked over to the intercom and announced the upcoming landing, and then swapped places with Wall. It had been a while since she had steered the ship, but she could still handle it well. 

Everything felt like it was going well so far, and they even landed on the spot without issues. She occasionally glanced over at Wall, trying to spot any weak points she could try to target. She noticed that Wall also seemed to be watching her, but she was unsure of what exactly he was analyzing. Was it her weak points? Or maybe he was judging her on her current performance? 

Another uneventful hour passed after landing as they refueled the ship. She felt on edge about something, but it was probably from the past experience with landing somewhere. She stayed close to the ship, just in case, but she kept her eyes out on those who were wandering from the ship for patrol. 

After refueling the ship, she grew aware that she was about to try to spar with Wall. Only a minute. She kept repeating to herself, her initial excitement slowly replacing itself with dread. She wanted to be interested, but as she watched Wall, she realized that it was his assessment of her. And she knew she was nowhere near her best shape. 

That’s where it’s going to go wrong, darling. Cynthia told herself. If I somehow don’t last that long, what will they think of me?

The armor she wore felt heavier, as if it carried the weight of her decisions. Everything felt heavy on her. She cast Light to make sure she still had any magic left in her, and a faint golden light appeared on her fingertips. However, she tried to use her blessed touch on herself to heal, but nothing happened.

One minute. She chanted again.

* * *

Wall stood with perfect posture, shield in one hand and his quarterstaff in another. Ten feet away from him stood his captain, who also carried a shield but held a longsword in her main hand. Wall kept his sight on the captain as he reviewed his notes that he had collected over the past few days. Among the mental notes were strategies, records of past encounters, and his current evidence against his captain’s hidden weaknesses. He sorted through them at peak efficiency, making sure most situations would be accounted for the best way to handle the future spar.

It appears there are major weak points along Cynthia’s sides and right arm, if not including the obvious weakness in the back of her head. Wall started to summarize in his thoughts. Assuming my current theory on Cynthia’s real condition is true, a hit to her left side may do more damage than usual. Whether I want to exploit this weakness or not depends on if she does show signs of previous injury.

Wall glanced to his right as he saw Paddy approach them. Paddy had been chosen as the referee of the spar, which both Wall and Cynthia agreed was probably good to have.

“Alright,” Paddy began to speak, “Can you remind me again of the rules so that everyone knows what they are?”

“There are three rules. This spar will last only one minute, and then must be stopped with a cue. At the request of Cynthia, neither creature is allowed to aim for above the shoulder, or they will be disqualified. The final rule is that, of course, no one will be allowed to die.” Wall spoke.

“Do you agree with these rules, Captain?”

“Yes.” Cynthia answered, and Wall noticed her right hand coil tighter onto her sword. 

Wall prepared his battle stance carefully, but his movement flowed like water as he did. Cynthia went into a similar stance, but her form implied a more aggressive and informal strategy than Wall’s. This was unsurprising to Wall, and so far she seemed to be disproving his theories on her current state. 

“Alright, then. I’ll just shoot my gun as a start-stop.” Paddy spoke. “Are both of you ready?”

“Yes, darling.” 

“I am ready to initiate the spar.”

Paddy paused for a moment, taking the time to assemble one of his guns from swirling gears. Everything grew quiet after a final click could be heard from the revolver, and then Paddy aimed it towards the sky.

Bang!

Cynthia and Wall glanced at each other for a moment, circling around the middle of the ship carefully. However, Cynthia eventually showed impatience towards stalling and charged Wall herself, chanting a vow towards him. As Cynthia approached, Wall swung twice at her, both hitting her armor but not showing signs of any damage. The instant after, Cynthia attacked with two swings, but Wall managed to dodge out of the way. 

She appears to be resorting to her normal strategy of being reckless. Wall commented. This is normal and cannot be counted against her. However, it must be punished.

Both sides swung twice but appeared to not do any damage to the other person. Cynthia dodged out of Wall’s first swing back, but she misstepped while dodging, leading her vulnerable to Wall landing a hit on her abdomen. Wall noticed Cynthia step back in response, but she immediately charged towards Wall and barely missed one of the wired sections. She lashed out again, but Wall dodged out of the way with ease. Wall calmly swung back, but Cynthia seemed completely unaffected as two ringing noises filled the air. 

Wall saw Cynthia about to swing, but then he noticed her suddenly pause mid-charge and stagger sideways, and she appeared to react by swinging her shield close to her right shoulder. 

That was one of the areas that she had been injured a few days ago. Wall noted. I already have evidence supporting her unpreparedness for an expedition.

As he took the note, Cynthia tensed before recklessly slashing toward Wall. However, with this move, she left herself wide open for another attack.

He saw an opportunity and took full advantage of it, and he held nothing back as he landed a critical hit on the captain. He managed to hit right along her left side, almost exactly where the chuul had crushed her. The blow was strong enough to knock her off her balance, but she managed to catch herself in a kneeling position. 

Wall reset his battle stance as Cynthia seemed to have to hesitate on standing. 

“I thought you said those injuries had recovered, Captain.” Wall said with a blank tone. “You already show signs of weakness, despite your usual hardiness towards hits.”

He refused to attack, allowing Cynthia the chance to surrender before it got any worse. In her normal fashion, she refused and managed to stand up, but Wall was able to tell that her body was already under significant stress. Her shoulders heaved, and he could hear her strained breath.

“That… That was just a lucky hit.” Cynthia snapped in between labored breaths. She glanced up at him, her golden irises barely a speck in her eyes as she stood up and charged him again, but she didn’t even make a dent in him. Wall could sense the desperation in her strikes, as her swings left small gusts, but they were not clean lines. 

Wall found himself hesitating again as he watched Cynthia try to give herself some space. An awful noise was made as Cynthia’s sword dragged back with her, and her final step was more of a delayed stomp than her resetting her stance. However, she gave him a confused glance, but he refused to explain himself. Instead, she seemed to be analyzing him, but the warforged could tell she was trying to detect if he was about to cast a spell. As she had more moments to analyze him, her expression became even more concerned.

After another moment, Wall looked her dead in the eyes, golden irises meeting fuschia crystals. He quickly rushed her, charging his energy into a quick and fight-ending blow. Cynthia, too slow to react, got knocked again by Wall’s quarterstaff like a ball to a bat. He was expecting her to maybe get flung back only a few feet, but to his surprise, she went flying towards the stairwell doors. 

Perhaps I should have limited my abilities for the sake of this, but that was only three hits from my quarterstaff. If she can’t get up from this, then I doubt she was even close to being ready for the expedition-

The captain hit the wooden deck like a skipping stone and bounced in the air before tumbling for a few more feet. Wall noticed Cynthia trying to use her shield to slow herself down, and she managed to stop inches away from the wooden walls that could have instantly knocked her out. 

My trial is complete. Result: Unfit for any duties. Paddy McLoughlin shall now be honored as temporary captain.

Cynthia got back into a kneeling position, but as she tried to stress herself into standing, she coughed blood into her right arm. Wall noticed Cynthia glance in the direction of Paddy, who seemed to be rushing towards her with a worried glance.

Wall walked closer to her, and as he did, she could see her attempt to stand multiple times. With each failure, she was left trembling more, and eventually she collapsed onto the floor and blacked out. Wall knelt down next to her and cast Spare the Dying as an emergency measure to make sure she would not face worse consequences. 

Wall glanced over to see the other members of the crew alarmed by their captain’s incapacitation. He knew that they had a reason to be frightened, but he was unsurprised by how easy it was to take her down. He’d seen it before in a few soldiers that were traumatized by events that reduced the group morale. It rarely ever got to the degree that Cynthia plunged into, but Wall was beginning to realize that she rarely knew what not being exhausted felt like. 

Over the past few days, he had noticed Cynthia being strangely tight with the scheduling. She was typically more flexible with planning, which was Wall’s first source of suspicion. The second guess was that she wore armor around the ship, which was something that Cynthia had done to hide her Plague infection. During the downtime after she was cured up until recently, she only wore her armor if they were traveling in unknown territory on foot. 

He had known that he was being too cautious intervening on Cynthia’s worsening condition. He wanted to apologize to the second-in-command for not acting on it sooner, but he also wanted to ask if Paddy had even noticed a change in Cynthia’s health. 

There is a chance that he did know and refused to intervene. He usually tries to not participate when we bring up evidence against the captain. However, the same chance also exists that he was unaware or was manipulated by the captain to think otherwise. Wall analyzed as he watched the artificer in question walked over to the paladin to examine her status. He noted that Paddy seemed to be surprised about the situation, as noted by wide eyes and small pupils. However, after a minute, Paddy relaxed his shoulders and sighed before looking up at Wall.

“Wall, what did you do to her? She usually is able to last a whole lot longer than that-“ Paddy spoke, concerned.

“You are aware of my capabilities already, Captain.” Wall spoke. “I believe that the ability to quickly subdue her was from remaining injuries.”

“But she should have been able to heal those off by now either through her magic or through rest. I saw her asleep after the fight that had done those injuries.” Paddy spoke, but Wall could hear the uncertainty in his voice as he continued. 

“Are you sure of that statement, Captain McLoughlin?”

“Well, now that you got me to talk about it, not really.” Paddy mentioned.

“I mean, she did knock herself out a few hours after the incident.” Poth added. “Remember, Paddy?”

Wall glanced between the ranger and artificer, who had different emotions written on their faces.

“Yes, but after that, she said she’d get some sleep.” Paddy answered Poth. 

“May I ask what you’re referring to, Recruit Poth Philious?”

“A few hours after we had dealt with the chuul, I found her unconscious in her room. Nur roughly explained to me through a game of charades what had happened, and then I went and got Paddy.” Poth explained.

“She woke up for a moment afterwards, and then I left to go see something. Perhaps you had called me up for something, Wall.” Paddy added. “When I came back into the room, she seemed like she was asleep. And I didn’t think to check her injuries because I had just assumed she would heal them.”

“But she could never recover the magic she needed to heal herself.” Wall commented. “Most spellcasters, as you would know, need a lot of rest before they can recover their magic. Cynthia is no exception.” 

“I don’t like where this is heading, Wall. I know she is usually prone to not sleeping for a day or two, but more than that? Three or four? That’s a stretch.” 

Paddy looked down at the paladin. He found himself wanting her to wake up and prove otherwise, but he felt sick as he knew that it was most likely true. As he dug deeper into his regrets and thoughts, and as he added what only he and Cynthia knew up until now, he wished he had noticed sooner and done something.

“I remember something else, too. It was before we even landed on the lake.” Paddy added, his voice void of emotion. “She wasn’t even fine before then. I remember her suddenly falling asleep out of nowhere and waking up a couple of minutes later. It didn’t seem too serious at the time, and there ended up being larger issues at hand later on.”

Roth eventually joined in on the conversation, but only to try to keep it from getting deeper, “We can talk about this later, but we should probably get Cynthia into her room before Nur tries to bite someone’s foot off. Again.” 

“You’re right.” Paddy replied, bracing himself before lifting the paladin and carrying her bridal-style. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

As he walked away, he kept glancing back down at Cynthia, and part of him wondered if she would wake up as he carried her back to below the decks.

“Why does this happening to you, lady?” He told her as if she was able to listen. Paddy sighed after a moment of silence, and then kept walking until he reached the first set of doors. 

“I could just set her back in her room, but Nur is in there. And she managed to outsmart him to get this badly exhausted.” Paddy thought out loud, “And if I keep her in my room, at least I can keep an eye on her.”

He wandered into his own room and placed her on the bottom hammock, and then carefully took off her armor so that maybe she can sleep better. 

Paddy opened his mouth to say something, but then realized it wasn’t worth his breath. He wandered back up to the decks to rejoin the others.

“Alright, so if I’m the captain now, I say we get going already and then we can talk more once we’re at flying altitude.” Paddy told the others, his hands held behind his back. “I need a moment to think about what to do about this.”

* * *

A few hours later, Cynthia managed to finally regain consciousness. She shifted to get comfortable in whatever she lay, and then examined her surroundings. She was armorless, and a significant amount of time had passed; she couldn’t tell if it was the sunrise or sunset that shone warm light into the room. An oil lamp was lit on a desk, surrounded by a few wads of crumpled parchment. Closer to her was the artificer whom she managed to get attention. He glanced around, and then walked closer to her, kneeling by the edge of the hammock.

“Good evening, Cynthia. How are you feeling?”

“Ah, so that’s the sunset, darling?”

“Yes.” He responded with a soft laugh. “It’s certainly not been that long.”

“That’s a relief.” She replied, and then answered his question, “I don’t feel great, but I believe that’s to be expected. I did basically get flung ten feet by a quarterstaff.”

“Somehow, even though you were in full plate armor.” Paddy added. 

“Hey, Paddy?”

“Yeah?”

Cynthia was too tired to care about the amount of stress her body was handling, and she sat up to wrap her arms around Paddy. He was about to say something as she moved closer to him, but he apparently decided against it as he let her try to curl into him. After a long moment, he gently put an arm around her, doing his best not to hurt her. 

Paddy wondered if she was able to give her exhaustion to other people, because he felt somewhat tired after a few minutes of the improvised embrace. Once he realized it, he tensed for a moment and told her, “I’ve been told I should be making sure that you’re resting, since, well, do I really need to elaborate?”

“Oh? And how are you going to do that? You didn’t do a good job of that the other day, now did you?” Cynthia challenged.

“Well, first by telling you that you’re not allowed to leave this room until you fully recover, and that’s an order from me. And I’ll be making sure there’s nothing you can possibly entertain yourself and stay up all night with.” 

“From you?”

“Yes, because the others are currently seeing me as captain until you get yourself together.”

“That’s cute, darling. But-”

“I’m not joking, Cynthia. Everyone’s worried about you, and they don’t want you dealing with captain duties in the state you’re in.” Paddy interrupted, irritated. “Because you’ve been using your power as captain to hide your problems for too long. Please, just listen to me and get some sleep. I’m sick of watching the others having to incapacitate you.”

Cynthia fell silent, but she wrapped herself tighter in the artificer’s hug. She sighed before explaining:

“I- I don’t know what’s gotten to me, and I apologize for that. I remember having more clarity about everything, but that was weeks ago at this point. And since then, the only feeling that stayed the same was constantly being tired. I just got so sick of it and associated it with the Plague more than anything else. There was a few weeks of clarity after I got cured, but, I think I lost it again when I watched you nearly die twice.” 

The paladin buried her head into his chest, and then continued her monologue:

“And I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t lose anyone on this crew. I had to be there if something were to happen. And it got worse every time I woke up with no recollection of the previous night. I was always terrified that I’d wake up and one of you would be dead. And now we’re here, with me forgetting to sleep four days in a row and getting injured again. I don’t care what happens to me, though. I just want you all to be safe.”

“Cynthia, please do care about yourself and rest. We can handle ourselves fine; I just ran into some bad luck a few times.” Paddy told her softly, brushing her hair with his left hand, “We need you at your best.”

“But-“

“Hush. The doubts should be ignored.”

Cynthia didn’t directly reply to Paddy’s comment, instead coiling herself around him to receive any affection. However, her grasp on him was incredibly weak, and Paddy pulled her head away from his chest for a moment to give her a kiss on the forehead. 

“Anyway, as I said, I’m handling captain stuff until we land again. So please just lie down and sleep for the next few days.” Paddy mentioned again, his expression turning back into a smirk. “And maybe I’ll join you in bed occasionally.” He added with a wink.

Paddy watched joyfully as Cynthia’s face went red before she buried her head into his chest again to hide her mad blush. He heard Cynthia try to get mad at him for the addition, but she couldn’t complete a single sentence. However, it was probably best that he left to go deal with his new duties as temporary captain. 

“I should probably leave before I have too much to do at once.” Paddy said as he unwrapped himself from the paladin, and then stood up. “I’ll see you soon, my lady.”

“Good luck. You’ll need it.” Cynthia replied, and then watched the artificer leave her a few moments later. She found herself afterwards in a powerful silence, unsure of what to do for a moment. 

However, she felt overwhelmed by her exhaustion, suddenly, and she slowly found herself wrapping herself tighter in the blankets. Then she felt at peace for just a moment as her head rested on the pillow and her eyes closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for unformatted line breaks. i’m not feeling them right now, but we’re finally at the end. not sure if bonus chapter will be posted.


End file.
